Just Another Sucker

by James Hadley Chase

  While Nina continued to watch, I went into the bungalow and got the briefcase. I put it beside the dead girl and then I closed the lid of the trunk.

  ‘Okay,’ I said to Nina. ‘Let’s go.’

  We got in the car. We were close together. I could feel she was trembling. She drove the car to the corner of Pacific Boulevard and there we left it. Silently, we walked back to the bungalow. We met no one.

  As I shut the front door, Nina gave a strangled sigh and slid to the floor in a faint.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I

  They found Odette’s body a little after ten o’clock the following morning.

  I had been in my office since nine o’clock, sweating it out and waiting for the telephone bell to ring.

  I had had a pretty bad night. When Nina came out of her faint, she developed symptoms of shock, and I had had quite a time with her. I finally made her take two sleeping tablets. Once I was satisfied she was asleep, I had gone to the garage and collected Odette’s suitcase from the trunk. I had then examined every inch of the trunk to make certain there was no trace of her to be found if those two soldiers came back in the morning to search the car. I even went over the inside of the trunk with the electric cleaner.

  Then I took the suitcase to the furnace room and lit the furnace. I opened the case. It contained the scarlet dress she had worn when she had gone to the Pirates’ Cabin, the white plastic mack, the red wig and the usual toilet things a girl carries on a journey. I burned the lot, and I cut up the suitcase and burned that too.

  I scarcely had any sleep that night and I was feeling pretty bad when I left for the office the following morning. Nina looked ill. We didn’t say much to each other. Both of us had this sick feeling of dread, knowing before very long the body must be found.

  I found it impossible to work. I sat at my desk with a file in front of me and smoked endless cigarettes, waiting for the telephone bell to ring.

  When it did finally ring, my hand was shaking so badly I nearly dropped the receiver.

  ‘We’ve found her!’ Renick’s voice sounded excited. ‘They have her down at headquarters. Come on, I’m on my way now.’

  I found him and Barty waiting at the elevators. Barty was pressing the call button impatiently.

  ‘She’s dead,’ Renick said to me as I came up ‘She’s been murdered. She was found in the trunk of a stolen car in Pacific Boulevard.’

  Little was said on the quick trip to headquarters. We drove straight into the yard. The Mercury stood in the shade with four or five plain clothes men grouped around it, watching a photographer at work.

  I felt cold and sick as I got out of the police car and walked with Renick and Barty to the Mercury. I kept my eyes averted as Renick looked into the trunk.

  ‘I want the Medical Examiner to have her as soon as the photographer has finished,’ he said to one of the plain clothes men. ‘I want you boys to go over every inch of this car. Don’t miss a thing.’ He squatted down to stare again into the trunk. ‘Hey, what’s this? Looks like the ransom briefcase.’ He took out his handkerchief, reached inside the trunk and covering the handle of the case with the handkerchief, he lifted it out. ‘Don’t tell me the money’s here. It’s heavy enough.’ He set the case down and opened it while the other detectives crowded around. ‘Full of newspapers!’ he looked at Barty. ‘What the hell does this mean?’

  ‘Look at the dress she’s wearing,’ Barty said. ‘The barman at the Pirates’ Cabin said she had on a red dress and a white plastic mack. She’s changed her clothes.’

  I had known the risk I was taking with the cheap blue and white dress, but nothing would have induced me to have taken the dress off the body and put the red dress back on her. It was something I couldn’t have done.

  ‘Where did the dress come from?’ Renick asked, puzzled. He turned to me. ‘Look, Harry, take a car and go to Malroux’s place. Ask Mrs. Malroux if the girl owned such a dress and bring someone down here to identify her.’

  I stared at him.

  ‘You mean you want me to see Mrs. Malroux?’

  ‘Sure, sure,’ Renick said impatiently, ‘and break the news to the old man. Get O’Reilly to come down and identify her. We don’t want Malroux to see her. If he wants to come, warn him she isn’t a pretty sight, but check on that dress, it’s important.’

  ‘Okay,’ I said, and glad to get away from the Mercury and its gruesome contents I got into the police car and drove out of the yard.

  Now, at last, I had the opportunity to talk to Rhea. Renick could trace that blue and white dress. Rhea had bought it. She was in for the jolt of her life.

  Ten minutes later, I pulled up outside the Malroux residence. I ran up the steps and punched the bell.

  The butler opened the door.

  ‘I’m from police headquarters,’ I said. ‘Mr. Malroux, please.’

  The butler stood aside and let me in.

  ‘Mr. Malroux is far from well this morning. He is still in bed. I don’t like to disturb him.’

  ‘Mrs. Malroux will do… it’s important.’

  ‘If you will wait, sir…’

  He started off down the long passage. I gave him a start, then moving silently, I went after him. He pushed open a glass swing door and stepped out onto the patio where Rhea lay in a lounging chair. She had on a pale blue shirt and white slacks. She looked extremely cool and beautiful, lying there in the sun.

  She was reading the newspaper and she glanced up as the butler approached her.

  I wasn’t giving him a chance to warn her. I stepped out onto the patio.

  Rhea saw me. She stiffened. Her eyelids narrowed for a moment, then her expression became completely poker faced.

  ‘Who is this?’ she said to the butler.

  As he turned, I walked up to her.

  ‘I’m from police headquarters,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, but it is important.’

  Rhea dismissed the butler with a wave of her hand. Neither of us spoke until the glass door had swung behind him, then I pulled up a chair and sat down.

  ‘Hello,’ I said. ‘Remember me?’

  She leaned back, reached for a cigarette and lit it. Her hands were very steady.

  ‘Should I remember you?’ she said, lifting her eyebrows. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘They have found her,’ I said, ‘but not in the cabin where you intended them to find her. They found her in a trunk of a stolen car.’

  She flicked ash onto the crazy paving.

  ‘Oh? Is she dead?’

  ‘You know damn well she’s dead!’

  ‘Did you two quarrel over the money? You needn’t have murdered her, Mr. Barber.’

  Her brazen attitude rattled me.

  ‘You’re not getting away with that,’ I said. ‘You’re responsible for her death and you know it!’

  ‘Am I?’ Again she lifted her eyebrows. ‘I can’t imagine anyone but you believing that.’

  ‘Don’t kid yourself. You have the motive. When your husband dies, half his fortune was to have gone to Odette. It’s much more convenient for all the fortune to come to you, isn’t it?’

  ‘Of course.’ She smiled. ‘But you happen to be the one who planned the kidnapping. You happen to be the one who was to meet her at the cabin. I was in bed when she died and I can prove it. Where were you?’

  ‘If they catch me, they’ll also catch you,’ I said.

  ‘Will they? I should have thought it would be your word against mine. I can’t imagine the police believing an ex-jailbird.’

  ‘That’s right, only I happen to have realised that from the start. I took precautions. I planted a tape recorder in the cabin. I have the whole kidnap plot on tape. Don’t kid yourself you can’t be pulled into this mess, because you can.’

  She became very still. Her glittering eyes stared at me.

  ‘A tape recorder?’

  ‘That’s right. Everything we planned is on tape. You have the motive. They may send me to the gas chamber, but at least
you’ll get twenty years.’

  That really jolted her. For a moment her poker face mask slipped. Her hands turned into fists, the colour drained out of her face. She looked suddenly older and very vicious.

  ‘You’re lying!’

  ‘Think so? If I get caught you’ll get caught too. You just didn’t play it smart enough. Now you’d better start praying I don’t get caught.’

  She recovered her self control. The expressionless mask slipped into place.

  ‘So you’re not quite the fool I imagined you to be, Mr. Barber. Well, we’ll see how it works out.’

  ‘Yeah: we’ll see.’

  The glass door swung open and I looked around. A tall, heavily built man, wearing a smart chauffeur’s uniform, stood in the doorway. This would be the ex-cop, O’Reilly. I was aware he was looking curiously at me. I was surprised to see he was about my age. His sand coloured hair was close cropped. His heavy, flashy face was coarsely handsome, and his steady grey eyes had that quizzing penetrating stare that most cops have.

  ‘The car’s ready, Madam,’ he said.

  ‘I won’t be going out this morning,’ Rhea said and she got up ‘Mr. Malroux isn’t at all well.’

  She started across the patio.

  ‘Mrs. Malroux…’ I said.

  She paused and looked at me.

  ‘When Miss Malroux’s body was found, she was wearing a blue and white cotton dress. It was quite a cheap thing. Lieutenant Renick is wondering where it came from. You will remember she wore a red dress when she left here. Lieutenant Renick wants to know if you know anything about the dress.’

  I thought I would have jolted her with this, but her expression didn’t change.

  ‘I know all about the dress,’ she said. ‘I bought it for her. It is a beach dress. She kept it in her car.

  When she went to the beach, she changed into it. Perhaps you will tell the Lieutenant that.’

  She turned and walked to the glass door which O’Reilly held open for her.

  I felt a sudden sinking feeling of uneasiness. If she could be so calm and quick witted on a question like that, could she talk herself out of the tape recording? She could admit the kidnap plot, but that still didn’t implicate her in Odette’s murder.

  ‘You’re Barber, aren’t you?’ O’Reilly said, and his voice jerked me alert ‘The Lieutenant told me about you. Have they found her?’

  Watch it, I thought. This guy is an ex-cop. He has been trained to spot anything suspicious, and what he spots will go straight back to Renick.

  ‘They found her. Renick wants you to come down and identify her.’

  O’Reilly grimaced.

  ‘Maybe the old man should do it.’

  ‘She’s been dead two days and shut in the trunk of a car. Renick thinks Malroux shouldn’t see her.’

  ‘Well, okay.’ His grey eyes shifted over my face. ‘Have they found the ransom yet?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I told the Lieutenant: find the ransom and you’ll find the killer: it’s that simple.’

  ‘They’re waiting. Let’s go.’

  ‘I’d better tell the old man where I’m going,’ he said. ‘I won’t be a minute.’ He started across the patio, then abruptly paused to look at me. ‘They’ve got no clue to the guy who strangled her? That photograph in the paper last night didn’t pay off?’

  That jolted me. I had forgotten the photograph.

  ‘No.’

  ‘The Lieutenant is smart. He’ll bust this case. I’ve worked with him in the past. He knows his business.’

  I watched him go, then I took out my cigarettes. I was about to light one when I had a sudden cold, spooky feeling.

  They’ve got no clue to the guy who strangled her?

  I had said nothing about how Odette had been murdered neither to Rhea nor to O’Reilly. Her body had only just been discovered. Not even the newspaper men were in on it yet — then how did O’Reilly know she had been strangled?

  The cigarette slipped out of my fingers.

  Here was my man! The lover! The ex-cop who had Renick’s confidence, who had the opportunity of knowing all what was going oh and of living in this house within a few yards of Rhea’s bedroom.

  O’Reilly!

  How else could he know Odette had been strangled unless he had strangled her himself?

  II

  Five or six minutes later, O’Reilly came through the swing doors and joined me on the patio.

  During those minutes I had got over the shock of my discovery. I had had time to consider more fully the likelihood that he was Odette’s killer. He seemed fitted for the job. I told myself I would have to be careful not to give him any idea that I had spotted his slip and was suspicious of him. By now, Rhea would have warned him that I had the tapes. This should jolt him as much as it had jolted her, but it didn’t incriminate him. Somehow I had to pin Odette’s murder on him before the police pinned it on me.

  As he came towards me, silently and smoothly, the way a boxer moves, I had to make an effort to keep my face expressionless.

  ‘All set?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  He gave no sign that he knew I had the tapes. His hard fleshy face was a little thoughtful, but that was all.

  We went together out of the house and down to the police car.

  ‘Has Mr. Malroux been told?’ I asked as I slid under the driving wheel.

  ‘Yeah.’ He settled himself in beside me. ‘Tough on him — his only daughter.’

  ‘Mrs. Malroux took it in her stride,’ I said as I drove down the carriageway, ‘Did she and the girl get along together?’

  ‘They got along fine,’ O’Reilly said, his voice sharpening a little. ‘She’s not the demonstrative type.’

  I decided to stick the knife in hard and turn it.

  ‘The Lieutenant was saying Mrs. Malroux now comes into all her husband’s money. The girl’s death is pretty convenient for her. The girl would have collected half Malroux’s fortune if she had lived: now the wife grabs the lot.’

  He shifted his solid, muscular body. I didn’t risk looking at him.

  ‘There was enough for the two of them, I guess,’ he said. I couldn’t be sure but I had an idea there was a sudden uneasy note in his voice.

  ‘Some women are never content with the half of anything. Mrs. Malroux strikes me as the type who wouldn’t share a breath of air with anyone.’

  I felt him stare at me. I didn’t look his way.

  ‘The Lieutenant thinks that?’

  ‘I haven’t asked him.’

  There was a pause, then he said, ‘That was a smart idea of his to print that photograph. The guy in the photograph looked a lot like you.’

  That counter-attack didn’t faz me.

  ‘It was me,’ I said. ‘We had a description of a man who was seen with the girl at the Pirates’ Cabin.

  His build matched mine. I volunteered to act as a model.’

  That held him.

  ‘Come to think of it,’ I went on, ‘you’re the same build too.’

  He didn’t say anything to that one.

  We drove two blocks in silence, then I said, ‘They found the briefcase. It was in the stolen car with the body.’

  His big, powerful hand was lying on his knee. I saw it give a little jump.

  ‘You mean they recovered the ransom?’

  ‘I didn’t say that: they have found the briefcase: it was full of old newspapers. Did you know there were two briefcases — exactly alike?’

  Again I felt him look at me.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Know what I think? I think someone switched the cases before Malroux left to deliver the ransom. It could easily have been done.’

  That really hit him. He dropped his cigarette.

  ‘What are you getting at? Who would switch the cases?’

  There was a sudden harsh note in his voice. He bent and recovered the cigarette, then tossed it out of the window.

  ‘It’s just a theory of mine. The way I figure it is
this: the girl gets kidnapped. The old man gets the ransom money ready. His wife suddenly gets a bright idea. If the kidnappers are double-crossed, the girl will be murdered. With the girl out of the way, Mrs. Malroux collects the whole of the estate — not just half of it. So she puts a bundle of newspapers in the other briefcase and switches the cases just before Malroux leaves to deliver the ransom. She then has five hundred grand spending money, she has got rid of her stepdaughter, and when the old man dies, she collects all the millions.’

  He sat absolutely motionless for some moments before saying in a hard, tight voice, ‘Did the Lieutenant think anything of that?’

  ‘I haven’t told him yet. It’s just a theory of mine.’

  ‘Yeah?’ He shifted around in his seat to glare at me. ‘Look, take my tip and don’t let your imagination run away with you. These folks have plenty of influence. You start a rumour like that without proof and you’ll land yourself in plenty of trouble.’

  ‘I know that,’ I said. ‘I was just coasting. How do you like the idea yourself?’

  ‘It stinks,’ he said, a savage note in his voice. ‘Mrs. Malroux would never do such a thing.’

  ‘Is that right? Well, I’ll take your word for it. You know her better than I do.’

  I swung the car into the police yard before he could come back on that. I pulled up and got out.

  We walked together to the morgue. I stood aside to let him go in first.

  Renick and Barty were sitting on one of the tables, talking together. Away in a corner on another table was a sheet-covered body.

  O’Reilly shook hands with Renick and nodded to Barty.

  ‘So you found her,’ he said.

  I was watching him. He was as unmoved and as tough-looking as any cop could be.

  I watched him cross the room with Renick, then I turned away as Renick flicked back the sheet. I was sweating again.

  I heard Renick say, ‘Is that her?’

  ‘Sure is — poor kid. So she was strangled. Any angles yet, Lieutenant?’

  ‘Not yet. How did the old man take the news?’

  ‘He’s pretty bad.’ O’Reilly shook his head. ‘The doctor’s with him now.’